The Missing Parts are an acoustic, instrumental quartet, formed
in 2009 in Tucson, Arizona, 60 miles from the Mexican border. The band
is comprised of Oliver Blaylock on violin, Brian Hullfish on cello, and
Paul Wright on acoustic guitar.

Listeners have classified their music as everything from
“chamber-core” to “alt-punk”, “string metal” to “Jew-grass.” While The
Missing Parts can be a bit difficult to categorize, their sound is
instantly recognizable. The tunes borrow from/pay tribute to many folk
traditions while ultimately serving as a bizarre field guide for the
sonic traveller. The Missing Parts have been compared with Kronos
Quartet, Ennio Morricone, Béla Bartók, and Gogol Bordello, among many
others.

In the Fall of 2007, the members of the band all somehow
happened to meet at Shot in The Dark Café in Tucson, improvised together
in the alley next door, and liked the result. Along with former
band-member Douglas Francisco’s lap-steel guitar, Paul’s intensely
percussive style of rhythm guitar, Brian's cello and Oliver's
classically-trained violin created vivid soundscapes, capable of
conveying odd emotions and ideas.

One interesting part of the story of the group is how its
virtuosic violinist, Oliver Blaylock, made a journey from his birthplace
in Juarez, to his adoption and subsequent American citizenship.
Another, perhaps more interesting story is how the band parted ways with
founding member and lap-steel guitarist Douglas Francisco. Ask Oliver
about it, and, if you’re lucky, his violin will provide a running
commentary.

The Missing Parts create the majority of its compositions by
steadily gathering improvisational parts, and then collaboratively
stitching these parts together and deciding how they move and feel, and
what those parts want to become. The Missing Parts fully believe in
the power of improvisation and collaboration.

The trio has collaborated with the singer/songwriter Cathy
Rivers; the pyrotechnic/acrobatic performance troupe Flam Chen; and has
shared bills with acts as wide ranging as March Fourth Marching Band,
The White Buffalo, the Bay Area-based trio Judgment Day, and Swedish hip
hop/swing group Movits!

The Missing Parts have repeatedly toured throughout the Rocky
Mountains and along the West Coast since 2009 (playing such venues as
The Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado and The Upstage in Port Townsend,
Washington). The Missing Parts will be on the road again this summer
before an audience of fans old and new, from octogenarians up past their
bedtimes to green-hared teenage punks, and all manner in between.